NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Alibi via Facebook
This is an interesting story, of a boy whose Facebook posting at a
particular time apparently became a major part of his defense
against a criminal charge:
http://bit.ly/4A8iHL (New York Times)
The article discusses the possibility that someone other than
the youth himself could have entered that update, but suggests
that he was too "unsophisticated" ("not Dr. Evil") to arrange
something like that.
Leaving aside this particular case, I'm forced to note that utilities
to programmatically and autonomously enter user input are
straightforward to obtain (any number of "macro" tools will fulfill
this function). These have the advantage of creating input from the
user's normal IP address, and specialized "AlibiMagic" versions could
be designed to wipe evidence of their existence from systems after
triggering, simulate normal browser log activities, and so on.
Law enforcement still hasn't really come to grips with the fact that
computer activity at a particular IP address does not necessarily
equate to any given *user* activity. We've already seen cases of
people accused of porn and c-porn violations based on relatively
unsophisticated viral contaminations that collected those materials
without being obvious to the machines' owners.
In other words, programs have the potential to falsely entrap, and
also the potential to falsely exonerate.
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator